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http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~fv/webnotes/answer.htm
Exercise:
You are lost on a desert island
with a sextant, a chronometer, a carrier pigeon,
and your copy of Smart's Spherical Astronomy.
Explain how you will save yourself.
(Assume that the chronometer is keeping GMT,
and that you know the date.)
Step 1: determine your latitude.
There are (at least) two possible techniques.
1. Measure the altitude of Polaris above the northern horizon, using the sextant.
This is approximately equal to your latitude.
(Polaris, the "North Star", lies very close to the North Celestial Pole.)
There are various problems with this.
Firstly, if you are in the southern hemisphere, Polaris will be below the horizon!
Secondly, you need to carry out the measurement in nautical twilight,
while it is still light enough to see the horizon,
and Polaris is only a second-magnitude star,
so it may not appear bright enough to measure accurately.
Thirdly, Polaris does not lie exactly at the North Celestial Pole,
so your result could be nearly 1 degree in error.
2. So, as an alternative,
measure the altitude of the Sun at midday, using the sextant.
Knowing the date, calculate the declination of the Sun
(it varies sinusoidally,
with a period of 1 year starting at the spring equinox,
and an amplitude of 23.4 degrees.)
The midday altitude, when the Sun is on the local meridian,
is composed of:
the height of the celestial equator above the southern horizon (equal to the co-latitude)
plus the height of the Sun above the celestial equator (its declination).
(If you are in the southern hemisphere,
the celestial equator will be closer to the northern horizon;
in this case its distance from the southern horizon, the co-latitude,
will be greater than 90.)
Knowing the altitude and the solar declination,
calculate the co-latitude and hence the latitude.
If the sextant can be read to an accuracy of a few arc-minutes,
you should correct your reading for refraction.
The apparent zenith angle of an object z' is greater than its true zenith angle z
by the value k tan(z'), where k is approximately 1 arc-minute.
3.12.2016 17:35
2 of 3
http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~fv/webnotes/answer.htm
Step 3:
Tear a strip of paper from the title-page of Smart's Spherical Astronomy
3.12.2016 17:35
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http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~fv/webnotes/answer.htm
3.12.2016 17:35